Okay so for English I have a paper due Wednesday and it's a research/argument paper where we had to pick a topic and be able to use the book we read in class as a source. I already did PLENTY research on East Asia food and food preparation techniques as well as gathered some information on the health benefits of the "east Asian diet" but, according to her I don't really have an argument..and since she told me this LAST MINUTE...screwing me over entirely...I need some assistance..how can I take what I've gathered and turn it into an argument...I am okay with doing some more research BUT I don't want to completely start over.

~BUMP I need ideas NOW~

You could do a comparison and contrast with another cultural diet (U.S.A. would be different) in order to argue that ____ cultural diet needs to be altered or that ____ cultural diet causes ____ symptom (such as obesity, heart disease, etc.)

Or you could look for underlying themes within the cultural food systems. I don't know enough about the food systems, but the American diet highly favors convenience (as seen with the prevalence of pre-packaged foods and fast foods). This favoring of convenience is also seen in other aspects of our society, such as the prevalence of certain electronic technologies, i.e. smart phones). Perhaps the East Asian cultural food system favors something else and you can argue that this is a cultural 'theme' or prevalent characteristic of East Asian cultures (I don't like the word 'theme' in this case, but whatever.)

Yeah, totally taking an anthropological spin on your essay. If you need help finding sources that investigate food from an anthropological perspective, I can totally do that.

The 1st one was my argument and she was like yeah that's obvious...and I was going to make a point about how the rate of type 2 diabetes is on the rise... particularly in China because of convenience/fast foods are becoming more common and how technology has contributed to everyone's lives becoming more sedentary, but according to her there's is no argument behind that....it's just facts.

The only arguments I can think of that would...oppose? that an Eastern diet would be a good thing is the mercury levels in fish, but that's not enough to make an argument...I think if I had more on the opposing side of how it wouldn't be good for you..I might be able to make this paper work...

I think you could become more creative with your argument if you focus on something different than A is better/worse than B (or vice-versa).

How and why food holds the power to bind people together and to set groups apart? How do food and eating construct and transform identities? How are national cuisines made? How do people connect food and eating to ritual, symbols, beliefs and health care systems? (Not my words, copied and pasted from the Internets). How can globalization be studied through cultural food systems?

http://www.niaspress.dk/books/kinship-and-food-south-east-asia

journal.ccsenet.org/index.php/ach/article/download/6493/6557

http://www.asian-studies.org/eaa/Lozada_16-3.pdf

I think I could talk about how the east is starting to become more like the west with all the technology and fast food...I'm not sure if this is true or not but, I think they can regulate fast food restaurants coming into their countries...like how many they want..I'd have to look that up, but maybe if they CAN do that maybe we should start doing that here...

Laws regulating fast food...hmm..that's definitely an argument...

I think I'll try that and see how it goes. Thanks Venus!

Well, I'm glad you have a better idea of where to go with your paper. I highly suggest looking at the links and articles I attached to my last post. The last article in particular argues about different ways you can understand contemporary Asia by studying their food, such as food as a marker of identity or globalization. The first article may not be useful, unless you want to study kinship through food. -.-

Sailor Venus wrote:

I think you could become more creative with your argument if you focus on something different than A is better/worse than B (or vice-versa).

How and why food holds the power to bind people together and to set groups apart? How do food and eating construct and transform identities? How are national cuisines made? How do people connect food and eating to ritual, symbols, beliefs and health care systems? (Not my words, copied and pasted from the Internets). How can globalization be studied through cultural food systems?

http://www.niaspress.dk/books/kinship-and-food-south-east-asia

journal.ccsenet.org/index.php/ach/article/download/6493/6557
https://2img.net/i/fa/wysiwyg/text_list_bullets.png
http://www.asian-studies.org/eaa/Lozada_16-3.pdf

I feel like I can use the Globalization through cultural food systems argument with most of the sources I already have. I guess you could argue whether globalization through food is a good thing or not...I think i can narrow it down after i do more research.

Finally after so much trial and error I finally figured out what I'm writing about. I'm going to talk about globalization, particularly the change in food culture over the past 40 years in China. It's arguable because the integration of American fast food as well as other products has had influence on traditional eastern beliefs. Older Chinese citizens can argue that it's a bad thing that China is becoming westernized and that their country will suffer from it. Others will argue that globalization has been good for China. I'm sorry that was so vague and hard to understand, but I'm still working on it for now.

SO I started writing my paper today...yeah I know I'm so bad... especially since it's due Wednesday. Well I'm feeling pretty confident with what I'm writing so far and I just need to find evidence for this from the book we read in class and then I shall be good. I only have a page so far, but I've yet to double space and format it so I have a feeling it's more than 1 page.